Old-Fashioned Hot German Potato Salad

This German potato salad recipe makes an ideal summer side dish. Guests will flip for the tangy coarse Dijon apple cider vinegar dressing, along with the crispy fried bacon bits. Serve it hot, warm, or cold at your next cookout!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Smithfield®. The opinions and text are all mine.

German Potato Salad

School’s out, soccer tryouts are in the books (successfully, yay!), and we’ve got one more day to go in our community garage — and then I am D-O-N-E, DONE. It’s been a hectic few weeks, but I’m looking forward to hauling everything that doesn’t sell to the donate drop-off, followed by a cookout with friends to celebrate the start of summer!

LOW KEY is the theme for this gathering, because frankly, I have zero bandwidth for anything else at this point. We’re talking grilled brats, my favorite German potato salad, and maybe I’ll ask my girls to make some of these individual veggie cups that are always a hit. Beyond that, I’ll pick up some beer and, perhaps, a pound cake and fresh berries for dessert and call it a day.

Smithfield Brats + Yuengling Lager

The key to keeping a simple menu fresh and exciting is always in the details. In this case, we opted to pick up several packages of Smithfield® Yuengling® Traditional Lager Bratwurst and, of course, several 6-packs of Yuengling® Traditional Lager to pair with them…

I mean, they go hand-in-hand, right? Each delicious Smithfield brat is made with premium cuts of pork and a special blend of sweet and savory spices, then infused with real Yuengling Traditional Lager. A cold bottle of Yuengling Traditional Lager to wash them down is practically a requirement. I love them, because you can forget about boiling them in beer before grilling them. Toss these babies right on the grill, and they come out juicy and flavorful every time!

Wanna try them for yourself? Smithfield Yuengling Bratwurst are available at your local Kroger. I always find them in the freezer case, but be sure to check the meat case as well.

Hot German Potato Salad

Let’s switch gears for just a moment to the German potato salad I mentioned. You’re definitely going to want to try this amazing summer side dish!

There’s a bit of debate over whether German potato salad should be served hot, warm, or cold, but I say go with what works. Hot German potato salad is totally amazing, but it’s often not practical to keep it hot at a gathering. If you have access to an outlet, a slow cooker does the trick well. But if not, it’s still totally delicious warm or cold. And since there’s no mayo in it, you don’t need to worry about spoilage in the summer heat like you do with an American-style potato salad.

German Potato Salad Recipe

Never had German potato salad? Oh, boy, are you in for a treat… Known as Kartoffelsalat in German (or as my Hungarian great-grandmother would have called it, Krumplisalata), it’s a slightly sweet fried potato salad with a bit of tang from apple cider vinegar and coarse ground Dijon mustard. Oh, and did I mention it’s filled with BACON?! Because it is — lots and lots of crispy fried bacon pieces. How can you go wrong with that?

If the bacon didn’t get your attention, maybe learning just how easy it is to make will. Let’s start with the fact that you don’t even need to peel the potatoes. Just boil a pot of red potatoes, drain them, and let them sit until they’ve cooled just enough that you can handle slicing them into bite size chunks without burning your fingers off. The dressing can be prepared while the potatoes are cooking, and it’s simply a mixture of diced cooked bacon, diced onions cooked in the remaining bacon fat, some apple cider vinegar, sugar, Dijon mustard, and salt and pepper.

The still warm cooked potatoes get tossed with the hot bacon dressing, which helps them soak up all of that yummy flavor. Add in a healthy dose of chopped fresh parsley for subtle flavor and a pop of color, and it’s ready to serve! I’m telling you, this German potato salad recipe really could not be simpler to prepare, and I highly recommend doubling it, because it definitely will not last.

The combination of this warm German potato salad and Smithfield Yuengling Bratwurst, paired with the subtle sweet caramel flavor of an icy cold Yuengling Traditional Lager will knock your next cookout out of the park. There’s only one way it could get any better… And that’s if you have a few extra minutes to make these Yuengling caramelized onions I shared last year. Prost!

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Bacon-Filled Hot German Potato Salad

Description

This German potato salad recipe makes an ideal summer side dish. Guests will flip for the tangy coarse Dijon apple cider vinegar dressing, along with the crispy fried bacon bits. Serve it hot, warm, or cold at your next cookout!

Ingredients

2.5-lbs. medium red potatoes, quartered

1 tablespoon salt, divided

1/2-lb. bacon, diced

1 heaping cup diced onion

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon coarse ground Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Instructions

Place the quartered potatoes in a large pot and fill with enough water to just cover them. Add 2 teaspoons of salt, and bring to a boil. Cook until easily pierced by a fork, about 12-15 minutes. Drain, and set aside to cool slightly. When they are still warm but can be easily handled, slice into bite size chunks.

While the potatoes are cooking, place the diced bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry until browned and crisp. Then remove to a bowl and set aside, leaving the rendered bacon fat in the pan.

Add the diced onions to the pan, and cooke over medium heat until they turn translucent and start to brown. Add the vinegar, sugar, Dijon mustard, remaining 1 teaspoon of salt, and pepper to the pan. Bring to a boil.

Add the bite size potato chunks and bacon to the pan, and toss to coat. Turn off the heat and and fold in the chopped parsley.

Transfer to a serving dish and serve hot (but warm and cold are fine, too).

Did you make this recipe?

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I usually make my German Potato Salad in a pressure cooker. The booklet that came with it in the 1940’s (I got my Grandma’s pressure cooker) had lots of great recipes in it and it had a yummy recipe for German Potato Salad. The pressure cooker seems to infuse all of the flavors together. Yours sounds good too though.

I’d love to try your recipe, Catrina! Please send it to me if you have a chance. Old pressure cookers are pretty much the best. I had my grandma’s for a while, and then my dad asked for it back. I find it really difficult to get my favorite recipes that have been passed down through my family to taste the same in my new Kuhn Rikon cooker or my Instant Pot. I’m pretty sure it’s mainly a size thing, because my grandma’s pressure cooker was much smaller. I’m thinking I just need to borrow it back and do some testing!

I feel like you can’t go wrong with anything bacon-filled, lol. This looks amazing and a perfect cookout side dish. Your mustard squiggles are absolutely how I’m plating my next round of brats! We don’t have Krogers around us but I will look in other stores!